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Ask HN: How is the job search coming along for people who got laid off?

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Re: Ask HN: How is the job search coming along for people who got laid off?

#221

Post by jenscow »

dxxvi wrote: post #110
throw_aws_inter wrote: post #16

I interviewed for 1.5 months (!!!) for AWS for a senior position, went through all the stages through the end. Then silence. I kept emailing the recruiters responsible for my interview, I kept getting out-of-office replies. Then I contacted some higher ups I found, told me they assigned my interview to other recruiters. No replies from them though. I have emailed them a bunch of times including the higher up. Then th…

This is my own experience: if the recruiters don't call me back, that means I fail. Calling them just makes me more stressful/sad.

Yeah, exactly.

Guess how many times anyone has called a recruiter and heard "Oh yes, you got the job - I've been waiting all week for you to call me about it"?

Re: Ask HN: How is the job search coming along for people who got laid off?

#222

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

j33zusjuice wrote: post #57
comice wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

human beings can often find situations like job interviews stressful. OP is probably a human.

An interview with one of the largest, most important tech companies in the world. Everything about landing a job there makes you more valuable. You have the prestige of having worked at AWS, who are known for hiring only top talent. And you’ll have worked at a scale unrivaled outside of a handful of other large tech companies. I’ve heard nothing but terrible things about working at AWS, but if you can tolerate it for…

> You have the prestige of having worked at AWS

> I’ve heard nothing but terrible things about working at AWS,

wut?

Re: Ask HN: How is the job search coming along for people who got laid off?

#223

Post by guitarsteve »

trentnix wrote: post #126
throw_aws_inter wrote: post #16

I interviewed for 1.5 months (!!!) for AWS for a senior position, went through all the stages through the end. Then silence. I kept emailing the recruiters responsible for my interview, I kept getting out-of-office replies. Then I contacted some higher ups I found, told me they assigned my interview to other recruiters. No replies from them though. I have emailed them a bunch of times including the higher up. Then th…

Sounds familiar! Not to mention the interview itself being a never ending stream of “tell me about a time when…” Eventually you’ll get a “No” along with a message that, per policy, they don’t provide feedback. And then you’ll get several emails insisting you send your feedback, because they really want to “improve the process”. *facepalm* Unfortunately, despite assurances to the contrary, I was generally unimpressed…

Last time I interviewed for Amazon, I couldn’t understand one of the interviewers spoken English. Combination of bad audio (their side, I have a good headset) and accent. I kept asking him to repeat himself and eventually gave up, and tried to guess at what he asked.

I usually defend Amazon (used to work there and enjoyed it) but the last interview cycle was really unimpressive.

Re: Ask HN: How is the job search coming along for people who got laid off?

#224

Post by kurtreed »

guitarsteve wrote: post #223
trentnix wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds familiar! Not to mention the interview itself being a never ending stream of “tell me about a time when…” Eventually you’ll get a “No” along with a message that, per policy, they don’t provide feedback. And then you’ll get several emails insisting you send your feedback, because they really want to “improve the process”. *facepalm* Unfortunately, despite assurances to the contrary, I was generally unimpressed…

Last time I interviewed for Amazon, I couldn’t understand one of the interviewers spoken English. Combination of bad audio (their side, I have a good headset) and accent. I kept asking him to repeat himself and eventually gave up, and tried to guess at what he asked. I usually defend Amazon (used to work there and enjoyed it) but the last interview cycle was really unimpressive.

Same here.

Re: Ask HN: How is the job search coming along for people who got laid off?

#225

Post by teux »

sandos wrote: post #209
teux wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can I ask if you know how average costs in Scandinavia hold up to that? Working in Norway atm making ~90k€ equivalent after some time, but I took the paycut from the US because of quality of life/healthcare/state pension, etc. Still, it’s a very good salary here, I’m in the top few % of all Norwegians. But it was a huge paycut. I’m definitely happier than I was in the US but I have been considering moving a bit furth…

I think Sweden might be worse in all of Europe though. 90k€ is unheard of here for developers, unless you are managing a team or a middle manager or something. Well ok, maybe its a thing in Stockholm actually. Living in a slightly smaller city, now way Jose. I am applying currently, don't know how that will turn out, but he manager even said that Swedish developers are cheaper for the company than people from Germany…

How does it compare to the rest of Sweden though?

That’s how I justify it here at least. I mean, I make 500.000kr less than I did in the US, but 900k also puts me in the top 5% of all earners in Norway. So I have a very good quality of life.

The middle class is so compressed here that it’s a super cozy income, and I will never have to worry about anything financially or healthcare related for the rest of my life.

I just have moments of «I want more», which is when I get anxiety and look elsewhere. But honestly not sure I need it in any real way.

Re: Ask HN: How is the job search coming along for people who got laid off?

#226

Post by dmurray »

kurtreed wrote: post #194
trentnix wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds familiar! Not to mention the interview itself being a never ending stream of “tell me about a time when…” Eventually you’ll get a “No” along with a message that, per policy, they don’t provide feedback. And then you’ll get several emails insisting you send your feedback, because they really want to “improve the process”. *facepalm* Unfortunately, despite assurances to the contrary, I was generally unimpressed…

In one Amazon interview the guy asked a coding challenge that he had apparently come up with himself. I realized later it was NP-complete.

Is that a bad thing? A lot of real world problems don't have simple computational complexity. I'd learn more about someone from how they considered heuristic tradeoffs and assumptions that could produce a "good enough" solution to a tough problem than seeing if they could reproduce Dijkstra's algorithm from memory.

Re: Ask HN: How is the job search coming along for people who got laid off?

#227

Post by type-r »

1-6 wrote: post #146
matwood wrote: post #32

Layoffs make news, but if you look at the numbers they are relatively small compared to all the hiring the last few years. We have gone from the best time ever in history to be in IT, to a great time to be in IT. There are a lot of jobs if you step outside big tech (and targeted jobs in big tech with certain skills).

Depending on how you view things, layoffs are only starting. Companies are taking a wait and see approach before taking everything off the table. Some are predicting 2023Q1 to be when it peaks.

Source?

Re: Ask HN: How is the job search coming along for people who got laid off?

#228

Post by type-r »

Bluecobra wrote: post #207
binarydreams wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did some hands-on contract work last 10 months but the rest was "no work" yeah. So 3+ years of being out of a full-time role.

So you spent roughly a quarter of your career not working? That's likely a red flag for a hiring manager. Why would they risk hiring you and you quit when they can hire someone with no gaps in their history? Should they care about this? No, but that's just the way it is and employment gaps are not a protected class.

not in my experience. coming out of college, i worked for 3 years then took 18 months off. nobody i spoke to cared. if they asked about it, it was out of genuine interest for what i got into during that time.

Re: Ask HN: How is the job search coming along for people who got laid off?

#229

Post by akhmatova »

dxxvi wrote: post #110
throw_aws_inter wrote: post #16

I interviewed for 1.5 months (!!!) for AWS for a senior position, went through all the stages through the end. Then silence. I kept emailing the recruiters responsible for my interview, I kept getting out-of-office replies. Then I contacted some higher ups I found, told me they assigned my interview to other recruiters. No replies from them though. I have emailed them a bunch of times including the higher up. Then th…

This is my own experience: if the recruiters don't call me back, that means I fail. Calling them just makes me more stressful/sad.

This is my own experience: if the recruiters don't call me back, that means I fail.

No - it just means the decision has been made, and you won't be hired.

Which is different from "you failed". It could just as easily be their failure to evaluate you properly.

Re: Ask HN: How is the job search coming along for people who got laid off?

#230

Post by fxtentacle »

single_identity wrote: post #219
fxtentacle wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I strongly disagree. Here's a family home with garden in the Berlin area that you can rent-to-own at 1900€ per month: https://www.immobilienscout24.de/expose/135035667 So with a 100k€ annual salary, one working parent alone can buy the house and feed the entire family. You consider that an "insult"?

First, 100k EUR is _before_ tax which I believe you might be confusing here. After tax you get maybe 50-ish % of that so you end up with something like 50k EUR per year. In no European country that would be enough to "buy the house" and even more so in Germany. Secondly, I'm genuinely interested in your thoughts here. What if you: * Lived in the EU * Being salaried 100k EUR (which is probably around 90th percentile)…

The offer I linked to was literally a "buy the house with monthly installments and no upfront payment" offer. So yes, you can "buy the house" if you can afford those 1900€ per month in addition to food and heating.

Also, with 2 kids and 2 adults out of which only 1 is working, you'll get heavy tax deductions, so I'd expect an effective tax rate of around 15%. That 100k€ gross will turn into 85k€ after taxes. Deduct another 10k€ annually for top-tier health insurance for everyone, 1900€ per month = 23k€ annually for the house and that leaves you with about 4300€ each month to spend on food, clothing and heating.

This might be just me, but I think if you pay people so that they can have a very nice lifestyle where they live, that's a "good salary". If the absolute $ number is higher in San Francisco than it is in Germany, then you either need to pay them more to match the lifestyle, or maybe hire in cheaper markets.

Germany in general seems to be very remote friendly. Many larger companies even have programs where you can go on a work-vacation to a tourist resort and they'll organize a co-working space and necessary permits. I guess that's why you see salaries equalize more throughout Germany while in the US the regional differences are quite strong.

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